Thank you.
I'm sorry for the witnesses to do this right now, but I would like to move a motion that I verbally put on notice at our last meeting. I move:
That the committee undertake a study, pursuant to SO 108(2), on the systemic discrimination and toxic workplace culture within the Canada Border Services Agency; That the study include a minimum of five meetings; That the committee invite the Minister of Public Safety, the President of the Canada Border Services Agency, the President and additional representatives of the Customs and Immigration Union, former and current CBSA employees with lived experience, experts in workplace culture and harassment, and any other witnesses the committee deems appropriate to appear before it; and That the committee report its findings and recommendations to the House.
I believe the clerk has been emailed this motion that I'm moving and will send it out electronically to everyone.
I would like to share why I'm at this stage where I feel that I need to move this motion. It actually started in the late summer. In my riding in Oshawa, I very often have coffee and conversation with my neighbours in Oshawa. I say, “Come and talk to me. Tell me what your concerns are.” One woman addressed me briefly. Her name was Caroline. She had some real deep concerns about her treatment as an officer at the CBSA.
When she shared these concerns with me, she broke down. She said, “I'm sorry to get emotional. I think that when I get emotional, people think I'm crazy.” She gets a reputation.
Women get that sometimes. We're told that we're crazy and that the things we're saying don't make any sense or that they're not really happening. A little gaslighting sometimes happens to try to convince us that this stuff isn't really going on.
I said, “Let me review your file. Let me read what it's all about.” At the time, I assumed that my mode of action would be to simply reach out to the Customs and Immigration Union president and, on behalf of my constituent and my neighbour, share that I would like to see what's going on with her case. It's at the third level. It's my understanding—and I've said this in committee before—that there are 450 cases in the east GTA alone at the third level. It was my friend Caroline's—now my friend, as I've gotten to know her—understanding that the union only had the capacity to review four at a time per month. At that rate, with 450, you can see that we're looking at six to 10 years before something is resolved.
Caroline felt that she needed to leave the toxic workplace and work somewhere else. She has left, but she still hasn't let it go. She still wants to be able to advocate not only for her case but for many others who have now said, “Thank you for having the strength and the courage to come forward. We want to come forward and share what's going on with us.”
I set up a meeting with her. You know how scheduling is; it happened closer to the beginning of October. It was right around the week that we had in our committee here the Customs and Immigration Union president, Mark Weber. We asked a few questions regarding how the government saw its ability to get 1,000 new border agents in a timely manner, based on the promise the Prime Minister made.
Through discovery, I learned that the attrition is very high. Very briefly, Mr. Weber pointed out that the attrition is high because there is a toxic work culture. He touched on it just briefly, but it stayed in the back of my mind, because if attrition is that high, getting 1,000 new border agents is going to be tough.
It's going to make even the topics we're talking about today tougher—auto theft and making sure our border agents have what they need to be able to screen—if we have attrition so high that we can't get this done.
Caroline came into my office days after I'd heard this testimony. I didn't really discuss it with her. I just listened to her story. Her story was quite heartbreaking. Multiple former CBSA employees came forward with serious allegations, but this is about her specifically. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to take some time off. She was worried about what it would mean for her position if she took time off and came back. We know that, in Canada in 2025, if you have to leave for illness, you should expect to come back to work and not be demoted or in a lesser position. We expect that person should be able to come back and have the position they were supposed to receive. Her experience was devastating. She was essentially removed from a specialty position.
After she fought and beat cancer, she became pregnant. I learned throughout several instances now that pregnancy is something that is essentially discouraged at the CBSA. Parental leave is discouraged past 90 days for both the father and the mother. Specifically for the mother, we know it's especially important because sometimes there's healing needed. Pregnancy made things worse.
There's something called the National Integrity Centre of Expertise, which she reached out to. However, the problem with this organization is that it's an internal one. You've seen organizations investigating themselves and closing the case. “Nope, nothing to see here—no wrongdoing. Nothing is happening here to change. Look, we've hired all these women in managerial positions. Clearly, there's nothing wrong. This is all in your head. Really, it had nothing to do with your pregnancy and nothing to do with the fact that you decided to start a family.”
It is becoming worse and worse. Another wonderful young woman wanted to start a family, and she did. She was a dog handler with the CBSA. For those of you who don't know this, dog handlers love their dogs. They become such close friends. They train them. They have so much they take part in.
I want to share with you something that she wrote: “I joined the Canada Border Services Agency in December 2014. When I graduated training, I was proud to put on my uniform.”
I'll pause right there because I think that is probably the single most amazing thing I've seen throughout this process. The women I spoke to—a couple of men but mostly women—are very proud to wear the uniform. They love their jobs immensely at the border and with inland security. Caroline, whom I mentioned, was inland security. Jordana was at the border with her dog as a dog handler. They were devastated when they had to give it up because they became pregnant. How is that possible in this country? It's not okay in any way, shape or form.
She had to give it up. She said, “I believed in service and integrity, and in the importance of protecting Canadians. When I first joined, I heard stories about the environment at the Pearson airport.” This is in Toronto, for those of you listening who may not know. The stories that circulated quietly among women in law enforcement were stories about women being passed over for specialized positions in favour of a man or after taking a maternity leave. They were about women being told they were too emotional for enforcement work, or being excluded from participating in special projects. They were about male colleagues being fast-tracked for opportunities that women had to fight twice as hard for. They were about bullying and harassment complaints from women that were quietly disappeared—not the women but the complaints, to be clear.
She said that she had hoped things had changed and that things had progressed. She wanted to believe that if she worked hard, did her job well and kept her head down, she'd be judged on her merit and not on her gender. However, to her disappointment, she eventually started to witness and experience these things herself.
The boys' club that she was hopeful was dismantled long before she started in 2014 was very much still alive. The women who were in charge were installed to protect it. She was warned by other female officers that complaining would effectively blackball her career, and she watched the agency silence women who did have the courage to speak out by labelling them as aggressive or crazy. She was told to develop a thick skin and to go numb to survive.
She was told this in her workplace at the CBSA—to toe the company line. So, she did, she says. In spite of the environment, she found a way to make the most of it.
She says that she spent time on various enforcement teams and eventually was selected to be an agricultural dog handler. After 10 weeks of intensive training in Quebec at the training college, she graduated as a dog handler. She said that it was more than a job to her; it was a calling. She was incredibly passionate about it and was dedicated to her work. She said that she was proud to serve Canadians in this way, to work in partnership with her highly trained canine partner, and to be part of a unique and specialized program. She loved her work. It gave her purpose, pride and identity. She and Faye were extremely successful and intercepted prohibited food items [Technical difficulty—Editor].